■ My­ers boots 7 FGs to lift Jets to ugly win over Colts

EAST RUTHER­FORD, N.J. — The New York Jets pulled off the type of vic­tory that even Broadway Joe could ap­pre­ci­ate.

With Joe Na­math and the 1968 Su­per Bowl-win­ning squad watch­ing, Jason My­ers kicked a fran­chise-record seven field goals, Sam Darnold threw two touch­down passes and the Jets held on to beat the In­di­anapo­lis Colts 42-34 on Sun­day to win con­sec­u­tive games for the first time in more than a year.

“The game wasn’t per­fect, by no means,” coach Todd Bowles said. “With the growth of the team, we prob­a­bly would’ve lost this one a year ago or a cou­ple of weeks ago. So, to win ugly, for us, is a pretty good thing.”

Mor­ris Clai­borne re­turned the first of three in­ter­cep­tions thrown by An­drew Luck for a touch­down as the Jets (3-3) moved to .500 by tak­ing ad­van­tage of mis­takes by the short-handed Colts (1-5), who lost their fourth straight.

“It’s one of those bit­ter­sweet vic­to­ries,” Clai­borne said. “You played well enough to win the game, but you feel like you could’ve played a lot bet­ter. You never want to give up that many points.”

Darnold was 24 of 30 for 280 yards, with TD throws to Ter­relle Pryor and Chris Hern­don and an in­ter­cep­tion to give New York its first backto-back vic­to­ries since tak­ing three in a row in Weeks 3-5 last sea­son.

“We’re def­i­nitely back in the thick of things,” Darnold said. “But at the same time, we’re not sat­is­fied.”

My­ers hit field goals from 30, 48, 32, 37, 45, 37 and 45 yards to break the Jets record pre­vi­ously held by Jim Turner (1968) — the kicker for the Su­per Bowl cham­pi­ons — and Bobby How­field (1972).

“It’s more im­por­tant that we got the win,” My­ers said, “but be­ing able to help out and do what I can that way, that’s what’s most im­por­tant to me.”

Luck was 23 of 43 for 301 yards with touch­downs to Mar­cus John­son, Eric Ebron, Erik Swoope and Ch­ester Rogers, the last com­ing with 1:51 left to make the score close. Neal Ster­ling re­cov­ered the Colts’ on­side kick to seal the win for the Jets.

It all had Luck pon­der­ing whether it’s tough find­ing the joy in foot­ball.

“At times, es­pe­cially when I do things — stupid is the only word that comes to mind,” he said. “We do some silly things to our­selves, but when it comes to hav­ing fun play­ing, I’m hav­ing fun play­ing.”

Trail­ing 13-10 in the sec­ond quar­ter, the Jets forced a turnover when Ja­mal Adams knocked the ball out of Robert Turbin’s hands and Jor­dan Jenk­ins re­cov­ered.

Darnold con­verted two third-down plays on the en­su­ing drive — 19 yards to Robby An­der­son and 7 to Jer­maine Kearse — to get the ball to the Colts 10. Darnold zipped a pass to Pryor in the front of the end zone for a 17-13 lead with 2:35 left be­fore half­time.

New York took ad­van­tage of an­other turnover when Luck’s pass to Ryan Grant de­flected off the re­ceiver’s hands and right to Avery Wil­liamson, who re­turned the ball 31 yards to the Colts 22.

Af­ter My­ers’ 48-yarder, the Colts went three-and-out and the Jets got the ball at their 28 with 42 sec­onds left be­fore half­time. Darnold hit a se­ries of passes and, with 18 sec­onds left, found Kearse in the mid­dle of the field for 23 yards. My­ers booted a 32-yarder as time ex­pired to put New York up 23-13.

Darnold came out fir­ing to open the sec­ond half, scor­ing on a ter­rific play de­sign — a fake wide re­ceiver screen — to a wide-open Hern­don for a 32-yard touch­down . It was the first TD of the rookie tight end’s ca­reer.

Luck an­swered right back, throw­ing an 18-yard touch­down pass to Ebron to cut the Colts’ deficit to 10.

Af­ter My­ers’ 37-yarder, the Colts came right back, with Luck throw­ing a 2-yard pass to Swoope to cut the deficit to 33-27 just 8 sec­onds into the fourth quar­ter.

My­ers added a 45-yarder, giv­ing the Jets scores on six straight pos­ses­sions.

Luck was try­ing to an­swer again when Dar­ron Lee picked him off on third down to give the Jets the ball at the Colts 25. Four plays later, My­ers’ 37-yarder made it 39-27.

Jets rookie tight end Chris Hern­don scores a touch­down Sun­day — the first of his NFL ca­reer — against the Colts in a shootout in East Ruther­ford, New Jersey. Back-to-back wins have the Jets at 3-3.